Radical Hospitality - You Are Welcome

There is this expression in Ghana that everyone new to the country grows to understand.

“You Are Welcome!”

Even now as I write these words, they sound perfectly normal to me, but I remember when we first moved there, how odd they sounded, like the response to someone saying thank you. But what these words “You Are Welcome” mean is just that, that you are welcome in this place, be it our home, our church, or in our company.

The practice of radical hospitality is generally considered a keystone to a church’s success, of making people feel welcome. In his Oct. 6, 2009 blog posting, “The Battle is Won or Lost in Your Lobby,” Bishop Schnase reflected on a talk given by Claudia Levy at the Leadership Nexus event in Shreveport, La., in September.

“She said a preacher may preach the best sermon since the Apostle Paul … but if someone walks in your front door and is ignored, neglected, rudely treated, pounced upon in an overdone fashion, or welcomed in a mechanical and perfunctory manner, then you will likely never see the visitor return.”

Schnase responded: “I’m not suggesting every usher, greeter, staff member and volunteer must be perfect. But they must be authentic, hospitable and attentive. Directed by the right motivations, sustained by a right Spirit, attentive in a right and caring way, we can do this right. We have to look at the guest experience through the eyes of a visitor,” or how we would hope to be welcomed.

“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Romans 15:7)

For the past year United Methodist Churches have been challenged by figuring out what Radical Hospitality means to them in their ministry setting. We wonder where does Radical Hospitality lead, and I believe that if it does not lead anywhere, that is OK. The blessing of Radical Hospitality comes from its practice in our lives, in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and in our church is enough because of what it does to us, not to where it leads or it’s affect on the people around us. Practicing Radical Hospitality makes us better people, a better church, it helps us become more like what we were created to be, and that my friends that is reason enough.

Archbishop William Temple once wrote, "The church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non-members." And as long a we remember that, we’ll do OK at extending Radical Hospitality, but when we shift our thinking to believing that it exists for us, we’ve lost any context for Hospitality.

There is another expression in Ghana, “Am I Invited?” that one will ask when waiting outside a room one wants to enter. This lesson came to us in a hospital where our daughter Grace was being treated for Malaria, and the chief nurse stood outside the curtain saying “Am I Invited?”

I think that is the implied question that guests to St. Philip’s ask, “Am I invited?” Are the people here going to invite me into their lives, their practice of faith, their community? Is St. Philip’s a place that has room for me? Its not only our gests asking, “Am I Invited?” is the question that I think God asks us every day. Am I invited into your life, into your relationships, into the joy and pain of a believer’s life?

So if the question is “Am I Invited” then as we grow in faith, and practice Radical Hospitality, our unspoken answer to God and those around us will be “You Are Most Welcome!”